1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an autonomous moving body including an environment map generation functionality, a route planning functionality, and an autonomous moving functionality.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an autonomous moving body, which moves autonomously in a surrounding environment has been known. In order for the autonomous moving body to move autonomously in the surrounding environment, an environment map, which represents areas where objects (called “obstacles” hereinafter) in a moving space exist and areas where no obstacle exists, is required. The various kinds of methods for obtaining the environment map are known. Recently, SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) has received a lot of attention as a technique in which the estimation of the self-position and the generation of the environment map are performed in real time while the autonomous moving body moves. A moving robot, which is configured to generate the environment map by using geometrical data obtained by distance measurements obtained via a Laser Range Finder (LRF) or a camera through the SLAM, has been suggested.
In the method of generating the environment map using SLAM, the initial portion of the environment map sometimes does not properly coincide with the end portion of the environment map when the looped environment map is generated, due to accumulation of measurement errors (so-called “looped-route problem”). JP-A-2010-92147 suggests dividing the environment map into partial maps in order to avoid the looped-route.
In the autonomous moving body disclosed in JP-A-2010-92147, when the partial maps which form the environment map are generated, the connection points are determined, and the connection relationships are then determined by selecting the connection points of the partial map to be connected from the determined connection points. Automating this technique is difficult because it is difficult to plan in this technique how the environment map should be divided in order to generate the partial maps.